Ok here’s my second cover - first Beatles cover and first time I’ve recorded on the electric (I play acoustic 95% of the time but really liked the way this one sounded on electric).
As I noted in my other post, I’ve been learning (mainly through Justin) for about 15 months now and have finally moved past “compilation/progress update” videos to being able to get a song to the point I can actually play the full thing end-to-end with at least 90% accuracy (my subjective grading ). This has been a big step and took about twice as long as I thought it would for me to get a song ready, but here it is. I welcome any suggestions - I know where I miss some notes and my vocal pitch is off here and there, but if there’s anything that you’d suggest I practice or focus on I’d love the feedback.
This sounded pretty good, Jesse. I thought the strumming and chords were smoother, cleaner than in the first recording. Keep working the instrumental fills, and will sound great when you get them smooth and up to speed.
For learning such parts remember to slow down to play accurately and in time, Justin’s mantra ‘practice makes permanent’ so go slow to learn and then speed it up.
Good on you Jesse for going and recording and sharing. I think as next step you might want to try playing along to the record with these songs to get the timing nuances down to add that polish.
Another good performance Jesse. Again, much like your acoustic Smiths song, concentrate on those chord changes. Once you get them smother your songs will sound so much better.
Hi Jesse,
Congratulations on another big step forward ,…enjoy it,…divide everything into small steps and your time doesn’t really matter, practice perfectly as said…
Greetings ,Rogier
Nice job Jesse and certainly became more fluent as the song went on. Definitely some hesitancy and pauses towards the start of the song…it looked like you were referring to the chords or lyrics at one point which is not a problem as long as you don’t need to pause. Also you can use a lighter touch on an electric than an acoustic they are very different things to play. Overall tone sounded good though.
Thanks - I think the hesitancy in the beginning was me thinking “is this take going to work?” and making sure I followed the lyrics correctly (they’re close but not completely ingrained which I realize is another checkbox in preparing a song for performance) and then once I got far enough into it I relaxed. I definitely need to spend more time on the electric and let the instrument do the work (lighter touch).
Thanks @roger_holland! Definitely feeling the “practice perfectly” vibe - and now that I’ve got over the first hurdle I feel like I can be a bit more patient in dividing things down and perfecting the little bits.
Thanks everyone for your kind words - realized I should group all of my responses in a single comment so here are the rest of my responses:
@sairfingers Yes, I do feel the need after landing this to go back the basics a bit and really nail the chord changes cleanly and clearly, going back to finger placement and minimum movement and all of the great techniques Justin has taught.
@jkahn Yes I definitely think there’s room for pulling out more nuance and polish. Thanks for the tip about playing along to the record. I think for me it’s been helpful to play along to the record a number of times then play along without it and record to see how much sound I’m actually producing vs what I’m playing along to in my head. When I playback this video I realize I have the full Beatles wall of sound in my head which is filling in all the gaps, but the microphone tells a different story so super helpful for me to go back and listen and realize where I need to fill in or tighen up and pull out those nuances as you say.
@DavidP Thanks for the comment and suggestions. I made a note of going back to work in some of the instrumental fills (I skipped most of the fills between the verses) and to really nail down the solo. Will definitely be internalizing is the “practice perfectly” mantra.
Hi Jesse, good job with this one too. Giving a go to a different song every week, as you are planning, allows you to put in practice different skills. Whenever you feel is the time for that, you can go back and work on an improved version and don’t forget to share it again then. One thing that practice doesn’t bring to you (you bring it to it) and you don’t need a lot more because you have tons of it, is enthusiasm.
Persistent practice pays off, your performance shows great improvement from first to second, Jesse.
In my chosen mindset is to make improvement the goal (rather than anything absolute). If we continually improve then we continually achieve milestones in the development of ability and quality of performance.
Hi Jessie,
Great song to cover and cover it well, you did. Liked your play and vocals. You captured the mood of the song for the most part I think. Any time you want to do more Beatles, I am in for a listen!
). This has been a big step and took about twice as long as I thought it would for me to get a song ready, but here it is. I welcome any suggestions - I know where I miss some notes and my vocal pitch is off here and there, but if there’s anything that you’d suggest I practice or focus on I’d love the feedback.
,…enjoy it,…divide everything into small steps and your time doesn’t really matter, practice perfectly as said… 
so super helpful for me to go back and listen and realize where I need to fill in or tighen up and pull out those nuances as you say.